Changes sought to Proactive Unit

Thursday

May 9, 2013 at 1:00 PMMay 9, 2013 at 1:01 PM

Cynthia Grau

The Livingston County Proactive Unit is feeling a shake-up caused by disagreements between Sheriff Martin Meredith and the other police chiefs involved in the unit.In a letter dated April 25, Meredith conveyed that he was removing himself as a member of the Proactive Unit, giving 90 days notice, predated April 11. At the end of the letter, which was received by Pontiac Police Chief Jim Woolford, former Fairbury Police Chief Jack Wiser, Dwight Police Chief Tim Henson, Livingston County Board members and Dwight, Fairbury and Pontiac’s city council members, Meredith stated that the Proactive Unit would continue to move forward, which seemed a little confusing.“The Livingston County Sheriff’s Office will remain the Proactive Unit,” Meredith explained, adding that, instead of the unit being comprised of county officers, as well as officers from Fairbury, Dwight and Pontiac, he intended it to be county officers alone. “We will continue to fight drugs and gangs with the Proactive Unit and the five members I have in it.”The issue Meredith has, which caused him to issue the letter, stems from the original resolution, made in 2010, which states “The Sheriff of Livingston County shall have command of the Intergovernmental Law Enforcement Task Force.”“I cannot go against a County Board resolution or any proposals that were generated from the other members of the unit that would go against my county board resolution,” Meredith stated. “I have left the Proactive Unit (as it stands) because we could not come to an agreement on a proposed policy that I believe would have violated the county board resolution.”He continued, “I’m not removing myself (totally). I am the commander of the Proactive Unit. What that letter was intended for was to tell the other members that were a part of it that Livingston County, which is who I represent as sheriff, I, being Livingston County, am leaving the proactive unit, but Livingston County, as I, the sheriff, will part of the Livingston County Proactive Unit.”Woolford, who, along with Henson, Livingston County State’s Attorney Seth Uphoff, and formerly Wiser, who all formed the Administrative Oversight Committee, said that Meredith’s intention to form a separate Proactive Unit using only county officers was news to him.“All I know is the letter he gave us removes himself as a member of the Proactive Unit, so it’s our intention that the Proactive Unit will continue and he’s welcome to come back into that unit at any time,” Woolford said.Woolford agreed that the resolution that Meredith refers to is correct, but later toward the end of the resolution, there is a section called “Protocols and Procedures,” which establishes the oversight committee. That committee chose to establish a protocol that the chairman of the oversight committee, the task force leader and the supervisor should not all be members of the same parent agency, which, they currently are. “The sheriff feels that (that part of the resolution) is at odds with the first part of the resolution (stating the sheriff has command of the unit). The other members of that board believe that that was within the confines of that resolution. We signed and adopted that. The sheriff did not agree to that,” Woolford explained. Woolford continued, “The way the Proactive Unit was set up, currently, everything was fine, because I was the oversight committee chairman, and the other two officers were from the sheriff’s office, so we didn’t have all three from the same agency,” he said. “His main issue was that he’s standing firm that number three (that he is the commander of the Unit), above everything and anything else, means the sheriff shall have command of the intergovernmental law enforcement task force, bar none, regardless of whether there is consensual agreement to a different system of governance.”Woolford said the whole situation is unfortunate and the intent was to eliminate any of the past issues the unit may have had and place a procedure that would outlive any of the current chiefs, state’s attorneys or sheriffs, so there would be “something simply in place that makes everything easy and logical.” Uphoff added, “On behalf of the state’s attorney’s office, as a member of the Proactive Unit Oversight Board, I am aware of the sheriff’s letter and I am reviewing the ramifications of that letter and possible options and alternatives that the parties have.”The unit currently works with two officers from the sheriff’s police, and one each from Pontiac, Fairbury and Dwight. Meredith’s unit would include five sheriff’s police. The sheriff also gave April statistics, showing the success of the unit.“We seized more than $2,000 in currency, a handgun, 2.3 grams of heroin and we had three gang contacts,” said Meredith.